Investment house Meitav Dash (TASE: MTDS) posted a 20% rise in net profit in 2017, to NIS 95 million, alongside a 13% rise in revenue to NIS 873 million. The investment house, managed by Ilan Raviv and controlled by Zvi Stepak and Eli Barkat (through BRM Group), has declared a dividend of NIS 13.6 million.
The rise in revenue derives mainly from the consolidation for the first time of the results of finance company Peninsula and of an insurance agency (from the third quarter of 2016), and from the merger of the provident fund and pension business of Ayalon, which took place in early 2017. Meitav Dash's profit was also affected by a capital gain on its stake in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (NIS 19 million), and by a loss on a revaluation of intangible assets arising from the merger of Ayalon's provident find business and the business of Meitav Dash Loans (formerly eLoan).
Meitav Dash says that "large resources were invested in 2017 in implementing the merger of Ayalon provident funds and pensions," and its management expects that the difficulties with the merger will continue and that further resources need to be allocated in 2018.
Meitav Dash's provident funds and pensions business yielded an operating profit of NIS 38 million in 2017, 14% less than in 2016, and almost 50% less than in 2015. Meitav posted a net loss of NIS 9 million on this business in 2017.
In the fourth quarter of 2017, Meitav Dash, Israel's second largest investment house, posted a net profit of NIS 21 million on revenue of NIS 221 million, representing a 62% rise in profit and a 12% rise in revenue in comparison with the fourth quarter of 2016.
The investment house was due to have been sold in 2017 to investment fund XIO at the rather high valuation of NIS 1.42 billion. The deal fell through in August, and the current market cap of Meitav Dash is just NIS 827 million. At the end of 2017, the investment house had NIS 128.8 billion in assets under management, which compares with NIS 129.5 billion at the end of 2016 (including the assets of Ayalon Pensions and Provident Funds, which were merged into Meitav Dash in early 2017).
Meitav Dash reports that Dr. Rachel Stepak, daughter of company chairman Zvi Stepak and sister of VP business development Avner Stepak, will join the company in May on a full-time basis as a digital expert. The company says that her compensation will be "in line with the normal conditions for employees at her level" and that it will not be higher than the average monthly salary.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 19, 2018
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